1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with an improved articulated pan specifically designed to provide a continuous central cooking surface while permitting the pan to be folded for easy cleaning and storage. More particularly, it is concerned with a pan having a pair of overlapping cooking surfaces joined by a pair of opposed, upstanding perimeter hinges. In one preferred embodiment, the outer perimeter of the pan includes an upstanding sidewall. In another embodiment, the sidewall is surmounted by an outstanding rim. The cooking surfaces may also include baking wells, perforations or slots.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fully equipped home kitchen invariably includes at least one pan or grill that must be washed by hand because it will not fit into a domestic dishwasher. Improvements in the palatability of frozen pizza and the recent availability of box mixes and ready made crusts have made pizza a staple item on the American dinner menu. All but the smallest of these require a pan having dimensions which exceed the capacity of standard domestic dishwashing equipment. Other common kitchen equipment such as cookie sheets, sheet cake pans and broiler grills are also generally too large for the dishwasher. Such items present kitchen storage problems as well. In many household kitchens, at least one cabinet is devoted to the transverse storage of such pans, which are too large to lie flat or to stand on end.
A number of hinged pans have been proposed in the past. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 386,599, issued to Neville, discloses a folding omelet pan having an upstanding central divider which is hinged to allow one half to be flipped over the other to complete an omelet.
U.S. Pat. No. 411,619 issued to Shaeffer discloses a cake griddle having a flat side and a welled side coupled by center hinges. Batter is poured into the wells on one side of the pan, cooked, and then the side is folded over the flat griddle side to complete the cooking.
U.S. Pat. No. 599,037 issued to McCleary discloses a griddle having a flat side and a welled side coupled by center hinges. Batter is poured into wells on a first side, cooked, and then the first side is folded over the flat griddle side to complete the cooking.
U.S. Pat. No. 581,232 issued to Holland discloses a baking pan or griddle with a bottom half hinged to a cover so that the cover can be folded over the bottom half.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,020,004 issued to Wishman discloses a bread pan with a bottom half hinged to a cover so that the cover can be folded over the bottom half.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,107,987 issued to Nash discloses a griddle having a pair of flat griddle sections surmounted by a bead or rim and coupled by hinges so that one side can be flipped over the other. Batter cooked on one half can be flipped over to the other half to complete cooking.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,292,476 issued to Kavanaugh discloses a folding omelet pan which is hinged in the middle to allow one half to be flipped over the other to complete an omelet. The pan has side walls between the halves.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,879,268 issued to Hurst discloses a pie pan with halves which are separable to allow the crust to be removed intact. During baking, the halves are locked together by swiveling locking members.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,945,013 issued to Wilson discloses a pie plate having semi-circular halves, each surrounded by an upstanding rim. The halves are hinged together so that one can be folded over the other to act as a lid in holding one half of a round pie.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,780,163 issued to Lee discloses a pie mold with two halves coupled by a central hinge to mold a semi-circular fruit pie as one half is folded over the other.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,654 issued to Lampe et al. discloses a pan with a bottom half and a hinged top lid. The pan is used for baking, frying, etc. in a convection oven.
These pans generally include a central hinge on the cooking surface itself or a hinged, upstanding divider which bisects the cooking surface, thus reducing the size of the available cooking surface by half. Moreover, pans with hinges on the cooking surface itself present substantial food removal and cleaning problems.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved folding pan which provides a continuous cooking surface by permitting one side to partially overlap the other, while permitting the pan to be folded in the middle for easy dishwashing and storage.